Recitals

Recitals

Recitals                                                                                                                                                 May 20, 2013

I had a very nice Mother's Day. I was proclaimed Queen of everything and given an apron as my royal gown. We also had the family for dinner where David baked homemade pizza. When the dinner was finished it was time to Skype with Sister Sarah Sheffer. We each took turns visiting with her and it was great to see her. She looks wonderful. She will be home on the 13^th of June and her homecoming we found out will be on Father's Day. (1:00 P.M. 400 West 1800 South, Orem, Utah) It sounds like she will be sharing the meeting with another returning sister missionary from our ward, Rebecca Hartshorn. I remember Merrill also reported his mission on Father's Day. We will have a pot luck luncheon before the meeting since the sacrament starts at 1:00pm. (445 West 1800 South Orem)

For Family night we invited Lizzy and Malleya to come and play in the irrigation water. They had a great time with all the water. We are sure they will come again.  This was the first time of watering for the season and the yard and garden were drinking the water long and deeply. We are sure that this week it will not take as long. The garden is in and one of the cucumbers is up. We love to play in the dirt. Fresh veggies are on the way.

We had the opportunity to watch Lizzy while Alan and Kim went to Stein Ericksen's in Park City for their fourth anniversary. She is still getting to know us but with her regular bedtime routine she settled down and slept for eight hours. Thank goodness! These days we need our beauty rest. It was nice to enjoy her personality. 

We were invited to attend two amazing events this week. Friday night was Taffy's dance program and Saturday afternoon was Gator's piano recital. Taffy's costume was adorable. It had a bead necklace and pink gloves. She loved the idea of wearing makeup. She has such grace. Gator wore a beautiful dress for her recital and she had great poise as she announced her pieces and played them beautifully. There were great opportunities for picture taking.

Meg called from Japan and asked if I would email her some experiences that I had while being at temple dedications or attending the temple. She had been asked to teach Relief Society. I was awake at two in the morning and realized that with the time difference in Japan I needed to type it up and send it of quickly or she wouldn't have time to translate before her meeting began. Two hours later it was ready but we were spending the night at Bert's and we didn't have internet access. So as soon as Bert was awake the email was sent. We heard from Meg that she received it but we didn't hear if she was able to use it. We know that temple attendance helps us in so many ways, especially with enduring to the end.

                                                                                                God Bless You All,   David and Gaile Sheffer

Mother's Day and Baptism

Mother's Day and Baptism                                                                 May 15, 2013

            We have our garden in and the yard is looking nice. Our neighbors gave us some big loads of their horse's best. We weeded and tilled it all in, dug the rows and planted all the crops. We just need to have our lawn mower repaired. The lawn was looking awful and our mower is going to be in the shop for two weeks so I talked David into renting a mower. Nicholas' mower is also in the shop so he mowed our lawn and then we used it on his. He also tilled up a garden spot in his back yard.

             We were invited to watch our granddaughters play soccer. Gator told me that, "I only care about winning." She was amazing at moving the ball down the field. Taffy was so graceful on the field and she would fly and float down the field and stand in front of the goal. We were not sure if she was waiting for the opportunity to kick the ball in the goal or to be a goalie for the other team.

                        On Saturday we drove up to Salt Lake City and David did a wonderful job of giving a talk on baptism and then baptizing Richard Stanley. I was able to lead the music and offer the closing prayer. The next day we drove up for the confirmation. The door David went to was locked. That meant a delay of just enough time to have him only half way up the chapel before they started the conformation. He shook Richard's hand as he stood to be congratulated. Then we drove to Grandma Sheffer's to wish her a happy Mother's Day. We drove home just in time to go to our meetings. We had been asked to teach Primary for the Valiant 9 class that day.

            After church David made homemade pizzas and Bert and Julie, Nicholas and Amber, Alan and Kim, Katie and Caleb, Grandma Duncan and Aya, came for dinner and to Skyped with Sister Sarah Sheffer. We each took 3 to 5 minutes talking with her. She said the visit helped her with the idea of coming home. She will be home on the 13^th of June.

            We have enjoyed being with family and resting. David was so excited. Tuesday May 14, 2013 was the first day that there wasn't something that had to be done. That was a day of rest according to David's definition. There is still much to do, but all of the big fires were out for one brief moment. We are almost ready to plan our summer.

                                                God Bless You All, David and Gaile Sheffer

 

Our Turn to Host

Our Turn to Host                                                                                                                                              May 7, 2013

This has been an incredible week. You know you are home from the mission when you are asked to host the dinner instead of being the guests of honor. We had three opportunities this week.

The first was the Ward's Cinco de Mayo party at the Nielsen's Grove Park. We were given two weeks to prepare. We had great help from so many, especially the youth. The young women set up the party and did a fantastic job with the decorations. The Teacher's Quorum handled the piñatas. There was one for the Primary aged children and another for the youth and of course a piñata that was filled with sugar free candy for the older saints. It was well attended and the sister missionaries were there and three nonmember families that live in the neighborhood.

On the next day, Saturday, Aya Karaba had her 17^th birthday party in our back yard. She is a Japanese high school student who has been living with Grandma Duncan. She had never had a birthday party with friends and Grandma asked around to see what "teenagers" would think was a fun party. Bonfire was one of the ideas and she thought of our backyard with all of the trimming that needed to be done. So, we worked hard and cleaned everything out and had a huge pile of limbs and branches. It was great fun and our new neighbors came with their hotdogs and another neighbor toasted marshmallows. Aya has another American experience to remember.

On Saturday evening during the birthday party we went to the mailbox and found a letter with a return address of Missionaries, Salt Lake City. "What could this be?" we wondered. It was from a missionary companionship in North Salt Lake who wrote to say that Richard Stanley was planning on being baptized on May 11^th, Richard and Jenni requested that we be part of the program. We had taught this couple in Visalia and had helped them get married. The incredible thing about the letter was that it had been mailed on Friday and we received it Saturday. That was crazy fast delivery. We sent a text to the missionaries and told them that we would be in Salt Lake the next day for a baby blessing and we wanted to know where the church was and what time. We met Richard and Jenni at church and went to their little house afterwards. We are excited to be able to go his baptism.

Also, on Sunday we attended church in the University 6^th Ward, Chinese speaking. This is where Ren was blessed, Mike and Jamie's new baby boy. He is so cute and looks like Jamie in the face and has her fair skin, we hope it doesn't burn as easily, and he has Mike's eyes. He is adorable. We helped a little with the food for the family's get together after. We enjoyed driving Grandma and Grandpa Sheffer to this event.

While at Grandpa's we asked to use his truck to haul fertilizer for the garden. Monday was spent fertilizing the yard, irrigating and moving the bed back from Grandma Duncan's for Sister Sarah Sheffer's bedroom. We miss not having a truck. Thank you Grandpa.

Nicholas stopped by and helped to dig ditches in the garden and move in the box spring and mattress. Thank you for the help.

We are so happy to have wonderful family and friends. We thank the Lord every day for the Gospel and the peace that comes from living and improving each day. We love you all. 

David and Gaile Sheffer